Publication Date

2009

Document Type

Masters Thesis

Department

School for Social Work

Keywords

Support Father Involvement Project, Fathers-Services for-California, Fathers-Services for-Evaluation, Father and child, Fatherhood, Evidence-based social work, Father involvement, Dissemination, Social service program design

Abstract

This study was undertaken to determine the most effective dissemination strategies used by the Supporting Father Involvement's (SFI) Project Directors to encourage Partner Agencies to adopt father friendliness and the SFI curriculum into their family resource centers (FRC) in five pilot California counties. This qualitative study aims to inform SFI's investigators about what works in dissemination approaches for a social service intervention, and what hinders those efforts. Sponsored by the California Office for Child Abuse Prevention (OCAP), the Supporting Father Involvement Project (SFI) is the first randomized clinical trial demonstrating that strengthening the couple as parents and partners benefits the children as well. The SFI study has been underway for five years in five counties, and plans are in place to disseminate the program throughout the state of California. Five Project Directors have implemented SFI into their FRCs and were asked to identify and disseminate the program to one or two additional FRCs in their counties. While participants were candid in their responses to these interviews, the primary finding of this study is that while Project Directors were able to successfully infuse Partner Agencies with father friendliness, they were not successful at installing the SFI curriculum into the Partners' FRCs. Suggestions for alternate ways to consider dissemination of SFI are offered here that may assist investigators in their future efforts to disseminate this important program.

Language

English

Comments

iv, 64 p. Thesis (M.S.W.)--Smith College School for Social Work, Northampton, Mass., 2009. Includes bibliographical references (p. 59-62)

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